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Greetings friends!
We hope that you are doing well!

The communion offering for June is for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Middlesex County. They are a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving abused and neglected children who are living in / out of home placements. Every year hundreds of Middlesex County children spend time in foster care. They are confused, frightened and caught in multiple government systems. These children need a dedicated caring adult looking out for their best interest.

CASA recruits and trains volunteers to advise the courts and advocate for the children’s best interest. Your donation goes directly to fund the training and support of the volunteers who advocate solely for the children.

You can go to their website, casaofmiddlesexcounty.org if you would like more information about becoming a volunteer advocate.
Please give generously to help these children living in foster care.

Updated Church Guidelines:

• We have opened up many seats. Rather than one every three pews, we will be at every other pew. This will increase our capacity by almost double to around 75 per service. You do not have to register for worship. Please feel free to just arrive on a Saturday at 6pm or Sunday at 10am.
  
  
• We will still ask you to sit where a bulletin is and not where there is an "X". You may ask...why? The simple answer is that because we have two services it is easiest for us to notice where people have sat in worship. Otherwise we would have to draw diagrams or go off of memory to know where to clean. There are now more pews without an "X" than there is with an "X". You will have many places to choose where to sit.
  
  
• You will no longer have to wait to be seated. You can just come in and sit down. Once again, this is a return to normalcy. You may see ushers in the hallway, but this is more for greeting or to help answer any questions you might still have.
  
  
• We will invite everyone to now stand and join us for the Call To Worship, Unison Prayer, and all hymns.

Things to remember when you arrive:

--We are asking everyone to still use the parking lot entrance, however the door will remain unlocked and you can now walk through Friendship Hall to go upstairs for worship. Friendship Hall is not a space for hanging out and socializing at this time, we will still ask you to do that outside. You will find the tables against the wall and chairs put away.

--Lastly, the masks. Friends, I am going to ask you to still wear your masks. I know many of you are eagerly awaiting the day that this is no longer the case. I try to explain why for a few reasons:

1. We don't know who is vaccinated and who isn't. It is not fair to ask volunteers to be the vaccine police and ask for a vaccine ID when people walk through the door. I also don't think as a church we can ask people for that, it's not right. Remember, the maskless recommendation is for those who have the vaccine.
   
   
2. As the Pastor, I know many people who have underlying conditions (which I'm not at liberty to discuss with others) in the church and some can't get the vaccine right now due to medical reasons. Jesus asked three things of us: love God, tell others about the Good News, and to love others. I'm asking you to follow through on the last one, love others, with this.
   
   
3. Singing. The CDC is still trying to make things very clear about what their recommendations are in terms of masks and signing. Right now they are requiring them for anyone who has a choir or singing. If we want to sing, the recommendation is that we have masks.

We hope that you will join us for worship this weekend.  Here are a few ways:

1. A call in number for both Saturday at 6pm and Sunday at 10am: (844) 855-4444 Access code: 652434. This number is toll free, so feel free to call in.
   
   
2. You can also join us for worship via Facebook live: https://www.facebook.com/umcmilltown/ (again you DO NOT have to have a Facebook account). If you would prefer, the service will be up on YouTube by 11am here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOziFm2WtgwKq0FWVph3r8w. Feel free to share the church services on your Facebook page or to tell other people about the services. This is a great time to promote the church because people are looking for things to watch/listen to.
   
   
3. You can also log on to the church website: www.umcmilltown.org at 10am and our service from Saturday night is there live for you to watch.
   
   
4. You can also visit our Messages page at 10am and our service from Saturday night is there live for you to watch.